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The Red Tree

The Red Tree is another outstanding book by Australian illustrator and author Shaun Tan. The book published by Hachette Australia in 2001 leads us on one girl’s journey through a dark and confusing path of depression. Although each page contains a few words it is the images that capture the reader’s attention with new objects, images and meanings discovered each time the book is reopened.

Shaun Tan has had an impressive illustrative career spanning over fifteen years. He has won various awards as an illustrator on notable books such as ‘The Viewer,’ ‘The Rabbits,’ ‘The Arrival,’ ‘The Lost Thing,’ ‘Tales from Outer Suburbia,’ and ‘The Red Tree (Wikipedia 2011).’

Much of Tan’s inspirations are drawn from the environment around him such as landscapes, buildings, objects and people. He takes these elements and experiments with the relationship between words, images and meanings with a thought provoking look at everyday social, political and historical occurrences such as depression, immigration, and alienation. Furthermore, the books contain an emotional depth that draws the viewer in. The illustrations portray a sense of dark, yet humble beauty with several layers of meaning and rich sentiment. Tan’s distinguished mixed media illustrations contain an infusion of riveting metaphors, fantasy, subtle symbolism and a mixture of art techniques ranging from cut paper collages to surrealist paintings. The combination of figurative language and imagery communicates to the reader a strong sense of emotion and feeling, yet the meanings are left to ones interpretation and imagination. It is a journey of self discovery.

Fittingly, The Red Tree is a journey that we all partake in through out life. For some, the journey may contain a few hiccups here and there in a relative bright world, for others it may be a detrimental path. It is therefore, a story that can provide solace, discussion and contemplative thought based on the age of the reader. A story that enables children to perhaps recognise inner struggles, identify with others and allow an opportunity to seek advice if required. Whilst very young readers may not understand the symbolism and metaphors they will be able to identify the emotions within. It is a book that should be used from kindergarten to year six in a time that is seeing depression starting at a very young age. For that reason, The Red Tree is a story that lets children know that they are not alone, whether the problem is big or small.

Tan's brilliant illustrations are saturated in colour. The ideas become doodles, then sketches which become a work of art. Tan’s use of oils; acrylic, wax pencil and collage on paper capture the reader’s attention. The effect of monotonous dark colours and bright undertones throughout the illustrations convey a feeling of helplessness with a hint of hope. The brown shades when merged with images such as the door- less buildings, downcast expressions, the juxtaposition of large and small images and sharp and harsh shapes create an impression of vulnerability and fear that one may not escape. The girl, throughout the book has down cast eyes that make her look miserable and exhausted. In many of the images her hair partially covers her eyes, which implies that she may be timid. Her dress is plain, possibly because she does not want to attract attention to herself, and she is also beset by the vastness of the landscapes suggesting a feeling of loneliness.

Even though all illustrations within this book a worth mentioning two that really grab your attention are the imposing fish and the girl in the bottle. The image of the fish floating above the girls head is a daunting figure that casts a shadow upon her. The spiky shadow, the gaping mouth and weeping eye of the fish add to an intense feeling of hurt and being consumed. Further, the thick brushstrokes, the lightless and repetitive windows, shades of yellow and expressionless people create a heavy and oppressive image that...

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...The RedTree-
The picture book ‘the redtree’ written and illustrated by Shaun tan, conveys his perspective of the world with the effective use of literary and visual techniques such as symbolism, foreshadowing and the extended visual metaphor of the girl in the bottle on the ‘nobody understands’ page. These techniques search the thoughts and concepts of living and battling depression. This page demonstrates that there is hope for people with depression; they just need to work for it and find a way to break through the barriers.
The extended visual metaphor of the girl sitting in the bottle conveys the idea of her feelings trapped inside. The protagonist is shown sitting in the bottle which connects to the idea of a ‘message in a bottle’. It is common that ‘messages in a bottle’ are lost and never found. Responders assume that she feels her thoughts and ideas are trapped inside and will not ever be discovered. The bottle is open however meaning that if she works hard and breaks through the barriers she can find an escape from the darkness that surrounds her.
Shaun Tan uses the literary technique of symbolism various times on the spread; this creates a picture of representations of emotions during depression. The most evident of the symbolism techniques is the big old scuba helmet. The scuba helmet is aged giving viewers insight that the painful situation is old, meaning it has been going on for a while. This goes...

...Sionil Jose, entitled Tree. Francisco Sionil Jose or simply known as F. Sionil Jose, he is one of the most prominent authors of literary books in the Philippines; he created a lot of books that tackled the different issues such as domination, deliverance, compassion, social prejudice and so on. F. Sionil Jose has been called a Philippine national treasure too. He was born on December 3, 1924 in Rosales, Philippines. He was introduced to literature in public school and later at the University of Santo Tomas. While working as a journalist in Manila, he began his interest in writing short stories and eventually novels. One of the books that he created which is known as the Rosales novels that earned several awards like the 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award, 2001 National Artist Award for Literature and the 2004 Pablo Neruda Centennial Award is the book entitled Tree. According to Sionil Jose, as stated at the back of his book, “Tree is a story of a boy growing up in a small Ilokano town, surrounded by friends below his social class, by relatives and doting servants who have served his family all their lives. It is also a story of oppression and compassion”(Jose, F.S., 1978). Tree is one of his few masterpieces’ in which I have the chance to read and I assume that this book was written based from the author’s experience since it is written in the first person point of view. I decided to use the social and the moral-philosophical...

...et in the 1950s in the Philippines,[3] Tree was the story about an unnamed Filipino boy, the son of a plantation manager and “subjugator of other Filipinos”,[3] who grew up in an Ilocano town known as Rosales, Pangasinan. He was surrounded by acquaintances beneath his social class, relatives, and servants.[2] He was described as a youth who “searched for parental love” and a “place in a society with rigid class structures”. He was also the grandson of the landlord protagonized by José in the novel Po-on. In Tree, the boy narrated the weakening relatiThere were many others but of course there’s also the jaded Espiridion who went to work for Don Vicente in spite of his own wealth – just so he will be able to secure his own wealth – because he knew that if he didn’t, Don Vicente can and he will, take whatever catches his fancy.
Then there was the son – the narrator. He didn’t know what was going on, he was young then and no one would tell him anything! And so, when he finally understood what was happening, he became another Espiridion – jaded and at the same time – ridden with guilt.
I think that the purpose of the book really is to show what happened to the Filipino people after all those occupations — the Spanish, American, and the Japanese occupations – how the people had lost their own identity in the process [just like the balete tree nilamon na ng vines yung tree mismo, na-strangle... yung vines yun na ang...

...Trees for Life - Grow a Tree (Fourth Project)
Region: China
Author: Zhou Yun, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences
Consortium Member: Green Earth Volunteers (China)
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $1430 Collected: $1430 Needs: $0
Result: To continue this education and reforestation project, in response to increasing interest from new schools in the Beijing and Xinjiang areas.
Donors: Ron Blum, Massachusetts [September 2002]; Lydia Thompson and the 6th floor MADEP, Massachusetts [October 2002]; Rachael Sharon for the Fifth Anniversary (wood) of Andrew and Ria Sharon, Missouri [October 2002];Esther Schmidt, New Jersey [October 2002]; Trace Foundation
Comment: Previous activities of "Trees for Life" involved hundreds of schoolchildren in planting and caring for their own trees. See the "Funded Projects" section for reports and photographs.
Brief Description of the Project
This is an environmental education project. It is found that participation by the people is essential for environmental protection program to be effective. Public participation requires a process of education, to inform people about their environment and the means of protecting it, and to encourage them to participate in environmental protection efforts. The project targets school children and can get kids involved at an early age, so they will know from the beginning how important the environment is. By focusing on China's children we hope that Trees for Life...

...In all parts of the world social ranking has always been an issue to people. From early history when the Romans were the major empire to present day in the United States, social classes have always been accepted as a means for people to distinguish themselves. In Uruguay, the social classes are clearly divided and define whom people marry and how they are treated.
There is a very distinct social class system in Uruguay. This class distinction starts at the top with the landowners. This group is not at the top because of their wealth, they are there because they have the most land and power. The next tier in the class system is the business class. These are the people that own and operate all the businesses in the community. Unlike the United States, military comes next in the social chain, because they hold much power and control over the community. Next come agricultural workers, who do not hold power in society because they do not own a significant amount of money or land. The bottom tier of the social system is the beggars, or "bottom feeders," They have no money, land, power or responsibilities, which in turn brings them no respect as peers.
As seen in the end of chapter thirteen with the marriage/elopement of Cora, and the attempted marriage of Raquel, social classes were a major factor in who people married and for what reasons. In Cora's case, she wanted to marry Ramiro, a young man of no social consequence and not of the family's faith. Cora's mother...

...bottle, symbolic of a barrier to open up to the world. ­ The girl wears a gas mask in the picture
showing us that she is slowly suffocating, and scared of how the world perceives her image,
by hiding her face. ­ The stormy weather, symbolic of how she feels, fills up the bottle which
she lays in, symbolising drowning in her own tears. ­ the horizon of the picture, is clear with
white clouds and bright blue skies showing that there is still hope and life, but she is not able
to reach it, due to being stuck in the bottle. ­ repetition of the word ‘and wait’ and the constant
tally marks, tells the reader that she has wanted belonging for a long time and still hasn’t been
able to reach the satisfactory level.
The Red Tree­
The picture book ‘the redtree’ written and illustrated by Shaun tan, conveys his perspective of
the world with the effective use of literary and visual techniques such as symbolism,
foreshadowing and the extended visual metaphor of the girl in the bottle on the ‘nobody
understands’ page. These techniques search the thoughts and concepts of living and battling
depression. This page demonstrates that there is hope for people with depression; they just
need to work for it and find a way to break through the barriers. The extended visual metaphor
of the girl sitting in the bottle conveys the idea of her feelings trapped inside. The protagonist ...

...RedTree By Shaun Tan-Related Text For Run Lola Run
Shaun Tan's The RedTree almost defies any rational classification. To the ear it reads as a sparsely written children's book, but to the eye the book's lavish depictions of isolation and despair require a much deeper analysis.
The basic story of a little girl having a particularly horrid day is not uncommon in children's literature. What separates this book from others of the same genre is Shaun Tan's wholly idiosyncratic artwork.
The slender story line depicts a young girl moving through a sequence of striking landscapes. The accompanying text is deliberately spare. The text often serves as a caption for the colour saturated pictures. In essence, each picture conveys a visual representation of an overwhelmingly, at times, depressed mood.
Despite the bleak illustrations, at the heart of the story is the message that hope springs eternal. Hope is characterized throughout by the shining beacon of a red leaf, that often flutters in the margins of Tan's austere landscapes.
Perhaps my favourite picture, is of the girl standing on a path that leads to a massive bird like mechanical monstrosity, that looms on the horizon. The girl holds in her hands a large dice that has what appears to be six on each side. The text reads, 'terrible fates are inevitable.'
The message of the six sided dice and the path leading inexorably to the monstrous...

...journey in the stories that they write, no matter what form or medium it is in, there is always a journey being taken. There are three different types of journey; they are inner, physical and imaginative. By categorising different forms of literature into these three options, the meaning of journey can be easily derived and the techniques in which they are constructed can be more fully understood and appreciated. The drama “Away”, by Michael Gow has been very intricately written, Gow has used physical journey to portray the inner journey taking place in each of his characters lives. The picture book by Colin Thompson, “The Violin Man”, uses images and illusion to create the imaginative journey that a lonely man decides to make. Similarly “The RedTree” uses a lonely character in the form of a young girl to represent all three journeys by incorporating physical, inner and imaginative concepts throughout the remarkable picture book. Each of these texts is constructed differently but they all use similar techniques to construct the journey being taken in each story.
“Away” by Michael Gow is an excellent example of how journeys can interweave with different types of journey to create real meaning. Gow has set up a simple story set in the late 1960’s about three different families with their own sets of issues taking a holiday at the end of the school year. Although this particular journey may seem to be a physical journey, it’s simply a metaphor...